Busing Boundaries Eliminated Within District 197

All District 197 students open enrolling within the district will be provided busing to their school of choice next year. 

That’s the decision of the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan School Board last Monday, who approved a proposal to remove the last transportation barriers between elementary schools in the district.

The transition to magnet school programming at Garlough, Moreland and Pilot Knob elementaries has virtually erased official attendance areas within the district, and parents can already apply for their children to attend any school in the district.

But the program changes have left some transportation limitations, particularly to Somerset, and between Somerset and Mendota attendance areas. Mendota has transportation to it from everywhere but Somerset, and Somerset only has transportation from its own attendance area and Garlough.

“There’s a lot of confusion out there for elementary parents about what their options are and where they can go,” Operations Director Mark Fortman told the council.

Some students from Garlough's attendance area going to Somerset have been grandfathered in from when Garlough was the only magnet school in the district, and those students are picked up at existing stops, which means a walk of several blocks for some students. 

Removing transportation boundaries will eliminate confusion and give parents more options, said Fortman. It may also reduce some automobile congestion at Somerset, where open enrolling students were least likely to be provided bus transportation.

Route Reductions, Cost Savings

The change will coincide with a reduction of three to four bus routes district-wide. The district is shifting to a “positive bus registration” system, meaning families will need to opt-in to bus service.

Fortman said that ridership counts done in the fall, winter and spring have indicated that there is room on existing buses to absorb a reduction in routes and any shifting of ridership.

The walking distances for students will not increase. Fortman said for most students, the current walking distance to the bus stop is about a block, and the change could benefit students from the Garlough area.

Average route times are expected to increase about 10 minutes to an average of 30-40 minutes, but “it wouldn’t get worse than our worst current is,” said Fortman, meaning those few routes that are already long (up to 50 minutes) will not get any longer.

While the opening of routes is expected to cost the district approximately $15,000, elimination of three to four routes could save the district $45,000-$60,000, creating a net savings.

“You’re able to do more with less, I think that’s magic,” said board member Brenda Jo Corbett.

School board member Byron Schwab voted against the proposal, voicing concern that it may hurt the neighborhood schools.   

 “It’s about school choice, but we don’t offer busing choice,” said board member Joanne Mansur. “So now we can say any student can go to any school, and I think the onus is on us to sell the magnet schools, so really the parents choose the schools based on what’s best for their child, and we’ll get them there.”

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